You are never too old to go back to High School

Ola, mi amigos. I really liked this movie, and I'll tell you why. (duh) It runs a delicate blend of odd seriousness, and dry humor. The cast is excellent. It's always a plus to see someone like Bruce Willis show up in a lower budget film like this. The other thing I liked was the directing. Clever without being over the top camera artistry. Also I'm a sucker for a good detective story. There is a nice character arc for Bobby Funke, our main character. Going from wannabe writer to true detective, true writer. I'm not going to launch into the details of the plot, but I will launch into the buy this movie spiel. If you are looking for a well done, fairly fun film, then this is the one for you. There are actually vendors selling this movie for as low as 25 cents to 1 dollar used here at Amazon. Wow, now that's an entertainment bargain. So toss your money around. Come on help the economy out...lol"cliffscosmicmoviereviews"

More ambitious than great.

Bruce Willis adds weight to this somewhat complex, if not beleivable, story of high school investigative journalism to the rescue. Willis doesn't take up much screen time but he does make a pretty good high school principal for the scenes he's in. I liked it better in the beginning than in the end. Finally, it's a high school movie, with new (and cliche) versions of "high school cool" and sophistication amidst a scandal in the student body - and corruption goes right up to the top (in this case the student body VP). Was hoping for something more in the black humor vein of say "Heathers" or "Election". Unfortunately it takes itself more seriously than either of those. I know, this is supposed to be some kind of high school "noir" - an idea that sounds more clever than the movie is. Beverly Hills 90210 meets All The Presidents Men is more like it. Rent if you must.

Damn good journalism

This is a movie For the people who want to enjoy their movies. All imean is that this movie was Awesome all the suspense like in a SherlockHolmes and the things happening in high-schools these days. This movieis a must-2-watch as it is a popcorn-snack friendly picture. when youwatch this movie u will feel like being in it and experiencing thethrill. People won't regret watching it at all .Not for Children Under 17. Because of some sexual content and abuses.good. better. Best. This is what i have to say for this movie.i mean i am not the movie person but considering to help you i must sayonce again it is a must see and if you don't you will regret it.

yuck!

for a movie with such great actors its was crappy.....no point at all and wondering why bruce willis did this movie

I've got a 175 IQ! Do you know what that means? It's that I skipped the 3rd grade!

**SPOILER ALERT** Having made a big splash at the 2008 Sundance FilmFestivle the movie "Assasination of a High School President" was slatedto be released in the late winter or early spring of 2009. Only to beput on the back burner when the company that made in went bankrupt. Nowavailable on DVD we can finally see what the big fuss was all about.School newspaperman Bobby Funke, Reece Thompson, was the butt off alljokes by the students at St. Donovan High until he broke the story towho broke into Principal Kirkpatrick's, Bruce Willis, office and stoleall the SAT tests. As it turned out the culprit was non other then St.Donovan's star basketball player and student president Paul Moore,Patrick Taylor. Overnight Bobby became the most popular kid in schoolwith even the hottest and brightest girl at St, Donovan, Paul Moore'sformer girlfriend, Francesca Fachini, Mischa Barton, dying to get Bobbyto jump into the sack-or bathtub-with her!As Bobby was basking in his new fond popularity he started to havedoubts about Paul's guilt. Everything about Paul risking everything instealing the SAT tests just didn't make any sense to him. It seemed toBobby that Paul was either blackmailed or tricked into committing thatdastardly crime by someone who knew about his dark past. When Paulthrew a number of basketball games by shaving points for reasons knownonly to himself and the bookie he threw the games for Freddy Bismark,Adam Pally. As Bobby started to investigate farther his worstsuspicions became realities. Even worse Bobby also discovered that hehimself was being set up as a pasty by those who framed Paul to takethe fall for them if the truth was ever to come out!***SPOILERS***Nice detective work on Bobby's part has him break thecase of the stolen SAT tests but almost at the cost of his life. Thestolen SAT's was really a diversionary action by those who set Paul upin a much bigger crime that they were in the process of committing;Embezzling the high school student treasury as well as dealing drugs oncampus! It's when Bobby's life was on the line, in him being kidnappedand threatened with being thrown out of a sixth floor window, that theroof fell in on his potential murderers!***MAJOR SPOILER***They asbright as they were never expected he would have alerted the localauthorities as well as Principal Kirkpatrick to who they were what theydid and where they'll be at the time he was to confront them!

A Mixed Bag

ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT is a big step above most ofthe teen movies that focus on potty mouth dialogue and absurdsituations just to get laughs. Writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowskihave come up with a script that is sometimes smart but ultimately fullof holes in deciding where it wants to take the original premise ofthis high school movie. Director Brett Simon seems to sort of let themovie flow as it develops, preventing a tight telling of a story withpotential. Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson, a promising new talent) is a nerdynewspaper reporter who is never able to finish a story. Student BodyPresident/basketball star/ladies' man Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) seemsto have everything Bobby wants, including the attention of the school'smost beautiful girl Francesca (Mischa Barton). As fortune would have ita crime happens - the SATs are stolen from the office of PrincipalKirkpatrick (Bruce Willis playing Bruce Willis) and Booby is on theinvestigation and story, a story that points to Paul as theperpetrator. Bobby's nerdiness is transformed by his attention and bythe affections of Francesca, and soon the school collapses under thecloud of the crime. It is how the 'crime' is inspected and resolvedthat ends the film. For Bobby Funke it is a matter of 'What priceglory'. The cast is fresh and it is a pleasure to see some new faces withpromise. Whether it is the director's or the sound mixer's fault, muchof the dialogue is swallowed by the soundtrack, a problem thankfullysolved by turning on the subtitles. This is a movie with promise fromall involved and it will be interesting to see if it has an impact onteen flick quality. Grady Harp

Well...

I only tried to watch it once adn it didn't hold my attention. i guess it was okay but not amazing.

Skip it and watch Brick(2005) instead

High School. Four of the most important years of your life. But itisn't always dances and keg parties and sucking face in your parents'mini-van. Sometimes it's ugly and hard and complicated. As complicatedas a conspiracy to overthrow the president. There's something rotten atSt. Donovan's High and sophomore newspaper reporter Bobby Funke is onit like pink rubber bands on your little sister's braces. When seniorhottie Francesca Facchini solicits Funke's help tracking down a set ofstolen SATs, Funke uncovers a story dirtier than the lunch lady'smustache. After he fingers the school president (figuratively) for thecrime, Funke becomes one of the most popular kids at St. Donovan'sHigh. No longer known simply as the freshman who was once tied to agiant snowman penis, Funke wins the respect of everyone from theDesert-Storm-hero-turned-educator Principal Kirkpatrick to the kid thatfarts on him in Spanish class. When Francesca takes Funke tohomecoming, even the in-school suspension delinquents turn nice andoffer guidance on how to keep his boner in check during slow dances.But high school's not always what it seems. As Funke's popularity growsso do his suspicions. Did the president really steal the SATs? Or isFunke just a pawn in a conspiracy as complicated as adolescence itself?Determined to find the truth, Funke digs deeper and unearths the sordidunderbelly of St. Donovan's. Student council members, college bookies,public school brats, everyone seems to play a part. Armed only with alearner's permit and the spirit of Woodward and Bernstein, Funke mustcrack the case before it cracks him...Assassination of a High SchoolPresident is a high school noir comedy with a good performance by itslead actor, Reece Thompson but besides this performance there's notmuch here worth seeing. Although the film does create a mysterious andtense atmosphere, the effort to do so is constantly undermined byridiculous jokes and ridiculous characters that basically turn the filminto a parody.The story unveils nicely but at the same time, it's notthat interesting and it's definitely not original.Bruce Willis whoplays the Principal, overacts during his entire screen time and failsmiserably at being the comic relief and Misha Barton seems to have lostall her acting-skills since leaving The O.C.. Definitely not worthseeing, but if you really want to watch a film-noir with a high schoolsetting, watch Brick(2005),a much more interesting, and better writtenfilm.5.5/10

Superbad meets grossout noir, boasting tangy teen dirty talk so thick, you could cut it with a well sharpened pencil. Which by the way, somebody does more than once.

Chinatown for the teen set

This movie had all the high hopes of being Chinatown, had the cleverdialogue, the out of his league hero, the femme fatale that was a shapeshifter, the smarter than the hero villain who had it all....but by thehour mark I was over this film, not because of the acting or what washappening, but by what else was going on that kept taking away from themain story, much like many other films that would make a great 70minute film that need 20 minutes of filler to make the feature lengthmark...that was the downside of this film, to many times to get boredbecause nothing on screen was leading to the main story and watchingteenagers get high, get naked, get drunk is not entertaining cinema ifthe only purpose is to titillate Not a must see film....well madethough, production wise and spot on for the film noir aspect....justnext time...make us care.....a problem that can be solved in 10 minutesdoes not make a 90 minute film... Q

Pre-screening

I saw this movie at the AFI Film festival in 2008. It has yet to be released in theaters after one year. It reminded me a lot of Rushmore. I thought it was extemely funny. My fiance thought it was a little bit crude, so it might be more of a guy movie. It is as funny and dirty as Superbad, but it has darker artistic element of humor.

If you liked this movie

Hi: If you enjoyed this film and it's milieu, I recommend "Brick"(http://www.IMDb.com/title/tt0393109/) a high school, drama, mystery,film noir.Though much more in the tradition of noir and with more densedialogue... it still belongs as a recommendation to this movie and viseversa.It seems too difficult to make a direct recommendation on IMDb withoutmessing with keywords and whatever else...So check it out for yourself.Cheers, Baartock

not as pretentious as Brick but more self-assured

I see lots of recommendations for Brick here as an alternative but Idisagree completely. The ambitions of the makers of Assassination of aHigh School President are so much smaller -- and thus more easilyreached -- than those behind Brick that I find the comparison hollow.Brick takes itself so seriously, and even though I liked it, I couldn'tbear watching it the second time, and I will never subject myself tothat pleasure again. I wonder how I will feel about watching this filmagain but I know I'm open to the idea right now and I imagine I willfind many more inside jokes than I noticed the first time around.When erstwhile hero and obvious patsy Bobby Funke tears the FreddyBismarck page out of the yearbook with a cough, I thought about thesame moment in Chinatown. Obviously so did the filmmakers, judging fromthe closing line of this film. Not to mention the scene of Paul Moorebeing dragged in a towel through the hallway yelling "I'm a pasty" --just like Oswald! That's one problem with the narration -- it's clearlyfrom the perspective of someone older than Funke. But once you give into that conceit, you can enjoy the ride. And even though the denouementis telegraphed way before Funke reveals it I still enjoyed the positionFunke finds himself in, as a catalyst for the plot and a lightning rodfor bringing together the various cliques endemic to every high school,and every high school film.Good performances, too, where no one is trying to be Marlon Brando on ahigh school stage. I find that refreshing.

Sometimes this movie is irritating and sometimes really gripping plus the ending is worth it and its smart/sharp too.

ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT – CATCH IT ( B- ) The moviecame out to be quite a pleasant surprise in the end. The movie startedoff with typical notion of a geek, bunch of jocks, a hot girl in schoolattire. Reece Thompson character in the beginning looked like acontinuation of his character in "Rocket Science" and as the movieprogresses he becomes more annoying and some times over the top. Therewere many times I just wanted to punch him in the face. Reece Thompsondid a annoying yet decent job in the movie as a lead protagonist. MichaBarton looks HOT (off course), Luke Grimes, Zack Roering, PatrickTaylor, Josh Caras, Melonie Diaz, Tania Fischer, Vincent Piazza andBruce Willis did a good job. Sometimes this movie is irritating andsometimes really gripping plus the ending is worth it and itssmart/sharp too. Watch it in spare time!

BPU = Boring, predictable, unrealistic

So most of the people who voted for this movie were Non US malesbetween the ages of 18-29.Herein we have a movie that could be interesting but isn't. All thecharacters are overplayed common stereotypes in a private high school,and the dialogue was obviously written by a bitter male basementdweller between the ages of 18-29...just like the people who like thismovie.So if you have no sense of realistic dialogue, and like poorly written,common stereotypes of high school students with a predictable outcomebut written with the personality and a CHUD basement dweller or overlystereotyped frat/sex/vulgarity dialogue from the mind of someone wholacks human interaction and assumes what late 20-30 year olds would belike if they were college kids pretending to be high school kids in apredictable movie, then this movie is for you! You will love it! If youare from not the US and you think US kids are like this and fantasizeabout being a complete loser like them or like hating these kind ofover done common pathetic trite stereotypes then this movie is for you!If you like movies that have interesting plots that are not completelyobvious, and characters that are at least slightly human with realisticinteractions and dialogues, avoid watching any of this movie.

Assassination of acting skills.

I understand that this movie was trying to be "hip" and "cool" and catch that old film noir vibe but lets face it, the acting here SUCKS - bigtime! Who would have guessed that a movie filled with so much sexual innuendo based one-liners could somehow be so boring? Every sentence in this movie is delivered flatly and with no life what-so-ever. Perhaps the all out worst is Bruce Willis. I'm a huge Bruce Willis fan, but what was he thinking when he chose to be in this trash? He tries to deliver the lines as if he's still on the set of Sin City (which I love). Its embarrassing that I have to watch a great actor like this deliver line after line of uninspired flat dialog. The only thing that kept me moderately interested in this film was the story... even though you can guess "who did it" about 20 minutes into the movie. Semi - SPOILER ALERTI like a movie that will throw twists at me and, when it finally does reveal the grand finally, leave me sitting there shocked and angry at myself for not realizing "that". With that said, even though it was obvious to me who did it 20 minutes into the movie, no one could have guessed the ending since its basically made up out of the blue in the last 15 minutes of the film! While I did guess correctly (and without much effort) who did it, the final reasoning is hardly even hinted at before hand! No foreshadowing, no nothing. Your basically left out of the know by facts that never existed. Lets face it, the shabby story is hardly the worst element of this film. There doesn't need to be a mesmerizing story to make an entertaining movie, but when you combine the poor dialog, acting, and story your in for one boring ride. I would not recommend this film to anyone - not even a die hard Bruce Willis fan. If you want film noir go see The Big Sleep or Touch of Evil and leave this junk where it belongs - in the trash.

Great adaptation of Chinatown set in High School

While some may compare this to Brick, the 2005 similarly-set HighSchool film noir, Assassination is much more comparable to Chinatown,which is clearly it's biggest influence. In fact, you'll see lineslifted right out of the film. But is it good? Yes, actually, it's quitegood. Clearly, the filmmakers here were not taking this quite asseriously as either Brick or Chinatown, and it pays off with a fun,funny, sometime campy, film noir with a good mystery and some wellacted roles.The writing presents a stylish script with dialogue that is often funnyand over the top. Bruce Willis is especially mentionable as aveteran-turned-principle who pines over his time spent in the militarytaking out bad guys and his hate for chewing gum. He's perfectly overthe top. Reece Thompson also does a great job as the lead character,playing up the gumshoe role with relish. It's fun to see him be him andfollow him on his journey.One line in the film goes something like "high school is simple...yetit's not." The film does a particularly good job of showing thisthroughout in scenes that inspire laughs. We have a suspension hallthat acts like a prison, and is presented in such a way as to inspirethis comparison. We have an assassination attempt that...well, I won'tspoil it. But suffice to say, this scene in particular demonstratesexactly what I am talking about. It's a good revelation of how highschool can be: in the end it seems simple, but while in, high schoolcan be anything but.The film is very entertaining and should be fun for anyone looking fora good noir. It's not serious like it's inspirations, but it doescontain a good mystery, some good acting stints, and some fun dialogue.I recommend it for anyone looking for something slightly different towatch on a Saturday night.

The name's Bobby Funke...I write for the paper

"The name's Bobby Funke...I write for the paper" as soon as thisdialogue came up in the opening few minutes, I thought hmm...maybe thisfilm would be interesting. As it turned out, after about 90 minutesfrom that time, I think it was an interesting film but not entirely. Asambiguous as this sounds, the film almost entirely was carried off bythe good performance from its lead Reece Thompson. He was just aboutperfect for the role of Funke.The pace of the film is very nice and the story{mystery} unveilsnicely. Though predictable at times, the screenplay never gave up allits cards before the climax. The music was well suited and the sidecharacters did their job well except for a few.Now the biggest culprit is Mischa Barton. For some reason she was neverconvincing enough and always appeared very phony. Least to say shedidn't immerse herself into the character. Though we all know she isnot famous for her acting skills, she didn't put her 100% behind therole. For all her fans there is some good news...she shows off herboobs in this film.Now, this film is no Oscar winner or a GEM or one of the best ever andI'm positive the film-maker never intended it to be BUT its quiteenjoyable if you can look beyond Mischa Barton and to a small extentthe predictability of the plot. I must add, it has quite a few funnymoments. The dialogue is good at some instants and horrible at others.

Basically Brick for remedial viewers.

It's more enjoyable if you don't compare it to "Brick".

Like some critics are saying, this movie is similar to "Brick". But thething is there can only be a certain amounts of different genres, typesand styles of films. So for a detective story to happen in a highschool setting in a over exaggerated, unrealistic, and fantasy likestyle is fine although it's been done before. I mean there is tons ofmovies for a certain type of genre, but you hardly see people whiningabout similar styles in films and go see it anyways. So "Assassinationof a High School President" is it's own film, as a matter of fact itwould have worked as a fresh sequel for "Brick". Now is it better than"Brick"? I don't think so. And if I had to compare it to "Brick" thisis complicated but not as intelligent, not as convoluted but also notthat much in depth, less heartbreaking but comedic. Also main characterin this film just isn't cool or slick as Brendan from "Brick", but thatcould be his charm. Sophomore newspaper reporter Bobby Funke isassigned to write a cover story on Paul, the popular class presidentand top athlete. After a stack of SAT tests is stolen from the officeof a bada** principal Kirkpatrick(Bruce Willis) and Bruce Willis is themain reason I decided to check out this film. Funke publishes an exposethat names Paul as the prime suspect and, suddenly, Bobby is the hotshot on campus. But when Paul's girlfriend who is the hottest girl inschool makes a move on Bobby and even his former bullies lay off hisback, Funke begins to doubt the jock's guilt and everyone else'smotives. And his investigation uncovers a campus wide conspiracy thatthreatens to take down people in high places in school. Funke mustdecide to either stay as the new stud on campus or decide to tell thetruth, although he is sort of forced to go with the other option. Thebuild up was good but the ending wasn't that satisfying because it wassimply far fetched, had plot holes and just wasn't that creative, butpassable.7.4/10